Today, labyrinths are used by people of all faiths (and none) as a tool for personal reflection.

Unlike mazes, labyrinths aren’t meant to make the walker feel lost. Mazes often have raised hedges that make it difficult to see into the center. They also give walkers a choice of pathways, which turns the experience into a giant puzzle. Labyrinths constructed for meditative purposes usually have just one single, flat path that slowly approaches the center, before returning back outside the circle.

According to Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress, who helped create a labyrinth at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, the narrowness of the path helps to focus the mind.

“By walking the labyrinth your inner world becomes transparent to you. You become aware of what your thoughts and feelings are that you’re carrying inside,” Artress said in an interview with SF Gate.

Grace Cathedral divides the labyrinth walk into three stages, each meant to open up a different avenue for reflection. Here’s an excerpt from their website:

Purgation (Releasing) ~ A releasing, a letting go of the details of your life. This is the act of shedding thoughts and distractions. A time to open the heart and quiet the mind.

Illumination (Receiving) ~ When you reach the center, stay there as long as you like. It is a place of meditation and prayer. Receive what is there for you to receive.

Union (Returning) ~ As you leave, following the same path out of the center as you came in, you enter the third stage, which is joining God, your Higher Power, or the healing forces at work in the world. Each time you walk the labyrinth you become more empowered to find and do the work for which you feel your soul is reaching.

A labyrinth between enormous pillars and stained glass windows defines the interior of Grace Cathedral. It is a replica of the Chartres labyrinth.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco (Outdoor)

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A man walks through the outdoor labyrinth at Grace Cathedral.

Edinburgh Labyrinth, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

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Monks from the Tashi Lhumpo Monastary walk the Edinburgh Labyrinth at the University of Edinburgh on August 25, 2010 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The labyrinth is an exact copy of a the Chartes cathedral labyrinth. It is designed to take 20-30 minutes to walk through.

Armenian Heritage Park Labyrinth, Boston

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The Labyrinth at Armenian Heritage Park is part of the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. The park commemorates the immigrant experience in America. The words art, service, science and commerce are etched into the labyrinth, in acknowledgement of the contributions that immigrants have made to American life.

Visitors walk on the Eagle Point Labyrinth, also known as the Land's End labyrinth, on a cliff overlooking the fog-covered Pacific Ocean. The labyrinth is the work of San Francisco artist Eduardo Aguilera, who was drawn to create a shrine to "peace, love and enlightenment" on this spot. It has been destroyed at least three times since it was built in 2004, and reassembled by volunteers.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story suggested that the garden outside of the Chartres Cathedral was a labyrinth. It is a maze.

Sedona's landscape is striking in and of itself, but&nbsp;practitioners of New&nbsp;Age spirituality <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/travel/09sedona.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0">believe</a> the region is also filled with "vortex" energy sites which people can tap into for inner&nbsp;healing.